I'm fealing a little down or something today. Maybe it is because I feel asleep Before South Park and also Over There. That could be a factor not sure really. I did get to see Inked and e-ring wich are both good shows. I think South Park is replayed tonight. The sabres will be on soon, so that should be fun assuming I can stay awake for the entire game. It will be better if they win ofcours or at least have a great game. Right Now I'm listing to a "Halford" CD I burned it from someone at work.
Metalpeter's Journal
My Podcast Link
10/20/2005 18:28 #28206
Down and Stuff10/19/2005 18:37 #28205
South Park Drawn TogatherCategory: tv
First a little off topic I watched "Elephant" the other nite on tape. It is about one of those hishschool shootings I belive Columbine. With out giving to much away the story was told in differant way it showed each character and what they did that day. Sometimes they where in focus and everything not dealing with them was blurry. Someone might go bye in the background then later you saw there day and saw how they saw the people they walked past. The way it was shot was interesting. Was it violant yes but it to be honest the shooting was the smallest part of the movie. But on to my point. TONIGHT NEW SOUTH PARK and DRAWN TOGATHER are on comedy central. I know some people don't watch much TV but I would highly recomend these two shows if you are going to watch something. Drawntogather is a a Drawn Reality show like The Real World, Big Brother, or The Surreal life. But all the Cartoon Characters are sterotypes. Well except the pissed off pig. You have the fat black and white sex sybol who cuts her self and eats a lot looks like betty Boob. Then there is the Black Heroin, Foxy Cleopatra. Then there is a superman like Character. Xandr is like from a video game and is on a never ending quest to save his girlfriend, but it turns out he is gay. I forgot about the Racist Snowwhite Cinderella type I guess you would call her "when she sings woodland creatures apper. It really is a funny show and is kinda out there. I guess in tonights episode they have to find a new roomate. I hope it is funny tonight. South Park is new. From what I've read online it sounds like it is ripping on "The Day after tommarow" It should be awesome. I have included a couple pics I got from the comedycentral website.
Drawn Togather
South Park
Drawn Togather
South Park
10/18/2005 21:01 #28204
Childporn ArticleCategory: sex
]I admit that this article I read in the Buffalo news was interesting today. I don't know when the first part was in the paper maybe yesterday and I missed it I don't know. I find it interesting how someone can start out doing something that is ok then how they can sprial out of control or cross that line that they shouldn't cross. I don't think that there is anything wrong with porn. I think that as long as the people who partake in it do it of there own free will then it is fine. I know some may say it is wrong but there is a need for it and aslong as it dosn't hurt anyone else then it is fine. I try not to judge what kind of porn or sex differant people like, some of it may seem a little odd to me. But I'm sure plain sex seems odd to to People who swing and are part of the BDSM life style. This is a story of the dangerous sides of porn. I don't belive that porn is evil or harmfull. But it can do damage like anything can if you do to much of it, but that isn't porn's fault. That is the fault of the people who do it. I think it is good for people who do enjoy it to read this so they know that they may cross a line that they don't want to cross without knowing it. Maybe it will help others. From my understanding of the article that is why this guy was willing to talk about it. I think this article is and what I'm writing about is more about sex then it is porn so that is why a picked sex as the catogory. It could really be either one it was a close call but I think sex is a better fit
FOCUS: PORNOGRAPHY
'I had become a monster'
Former teacher in prison for child pornography discusses his obsession and the nightmare it caused
Second of two parts
By DAN HERBECK
News Staff Reporter
10/18/2005
Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News
"I was addicted to it like people get addicted to cocaine or alcohol . . ." said Jeffrey Hart about child pornography. Hart is a former Town of Tonawanda teacher serving time in a federal prison for possessing child pornography.
Looking back, Jeffrey E. Hart says he is thankful the FBI caught him.
"The day they arrested me, I realized what I had become," he said, "a monster."
Hart, 28, a former teacher who is now a federal prisoner, blames only himself for his fall into the dark and sleazy world of Internet child pornography.
His obsession with child porn resulted in his arrest, the loss of his job and the 57-month term he is serving in a federal prison for sex offenders in South Carolina.
Hart wishes he could go back to the spring of 2001, when he got bored looking at adult pornography and began to seek out images of naked young girls.
He wishes he had looked for psychiatric help before his curiosity became an obsession that turned his life upside down.
"The first few times I saw child porn, I was totally disgusted," Hart told The Buffalo News. "I couldn't click off of it fast enough. But after a while, it became an escape for me. I was addicted to it like people get addicted to cocaine or alcohol . . . I thank God they stopped me when they did."
Hart was arrested in June 2004, when members of an FBI cyber crimes task force showed up at his mother's home in the Town of Tonawanda. He immediately confessed to possessing child pornography and later pleaded guilty to a single felony charge.
Hart was never accused of molesting children, and he insists he never felt the urge to do so. But his conviction made him a registered state sex offender and forced him to resign his job as an elementary and middle school art teacher in the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda school system. As a convicted felon, he can never teach again.
Losing a job was nothing compared with the pain he caused his mother, father, brother and other family members, Hart said.
"I don't feel bad for myself, but for them," he said. "Knowing how this devastated my family is a pain that is with me all the time, even when I'm asleep."
Hart said he agreed to tell his story publicly because he hopes other men will read it, learn from his mistakes and get psychiatric help.
The introspective ex-teacher is one of a growing number of men throughout the nation prosecuted for viewing and trading child porn images on the Internet. The number of federal prosecutions for such crimes has skyrocketed - from just 366 in fiscal year 1995 to more than 1,550 so far this year.
At least 200,000 child porn Web sites exist, according to Innocence in Danger, a non-profit international group that fights child exploitation. The group estimates that, worldwide, one million children each year are forced into the "commercial sex industry."
Violators caught in Western New York have included several other teachers, a priest, at least two politicians, a police officer, a youth hockey coach and a retired judge. Most cases involve men like Hart, who download images and trade them with others.
The worst local incidents involve men who transmitted images of themselves molesting toddlers or young children - in some cases, their own children or grandchildren.
Why are so many American men willing to risk their freedom, their reputations and family relationships to look at sex images of children?
The men who get involved generally fall into two groups, according to Dr. David G. Heffler, an Orchard Park psychologist who counsels sex offenders.
One group is made up of hard-core pedophiles who look at child porn to indulge their fantasies and who sometimes use the Internet to contact children and teens whom they hope to molest.
The larger group - which includes Hart - consists of men who start out as Internet porn thrill-seekers and wind up in big trouble.
"If the public knew how many men in this community are looking at Internet pornography, day after day, people would be shocked," Heffler said. "A lot of these men start looking at adult porn. The Internet makes it so easy, it becomes a habitual thing. Some actually become addicted to the chemical response that their arousal from pornography releases into the brain."
After a while, for some men, adult porn becomes too routine, Heffler said. They start looking at images of teenage girls. Then, some move toward images of children.
"Part of the nature of man is that he's attracted to things that are considered taboo by society," Heffler said. "I've interviewed men who said they never intended to look at children, but once they did, they were drawn to it, again and again."
Heffler considers all pornography to be bad for society.
"Once a man starts looking at pornography and looking at women as sex objects, less than human, he's on a slippery slope," he said. "He could start looking at kids that way."
Never underestimate the damage that child porn causes for the children who are forced to take part in it, said Elizabeth R. Donatello. She is a prosecutor with the Niagara County district attorney's office who specializes in sex offender cases.
"If you're looking at this material, children are being raped and molested for your entertainment," she said. ""For the victims, it's always on their mind that their pictures are being circulated all over the world."
Forbidden territory
An honor student in the Sweet Home school system, Hart began looking at Playboy magazines at age 12 and adult porn videos as a teenager. In his early 20s, Hart realized that the Internet opened up a whole new world of porn. All he had to do was sit in his room and turn on his computer. "It was easier to get porn than a pack of cigarettes," he said.
Hart kept pushing the envelope, looking for the edgiest adult entertainment he could find. He found Web sites offering pictures of nude teenage girls and started looking at them.
And then, children.
At first, the images repulsed him. Later, he couldn't get enough.
Over the next three years, Hart gradually focused more and more on images of children. Some were posing nude. Others were being molested by adults.
Visibly embarrassed, Hart struggled for words as he tried to explain his attraction to such material.
"At the time, I had some personal demons that I had no way to deal with . . . I was spending a lot of time on the Internet," he said.
"There's a rush you get from doing something that is forbidden. That's part of the attraction. I was being extremely selfish. Pornography is all about a quick fix. Looking at those images makes you feel like you are in control of others . . . My mistake was, I didn't see children there. All I saw was pictures."
Getting caught
By May 2004, Hart had a steady girlfriend and a good job. According to school officials, he was doing excellent work, and there were never complaints about his conduct. But at home, he was looking at child porn almost every day. He stored images in his hard drive and used the Internet to trade them with other men he met through child porn Web sites.
One of those men turned out to be an undercover FBI agent. Hart e-mailed the man seven images of a nude preteen girl.
At 7 a.m. on June 29, 2004, eight federal agents came to Hart's mother's home with a warrant, authorizing them to seize Hart's computer. "My mother woke me up. Two agents came into my room to talk to me," Hart recalled. "They showed me a transcript of me e-mailing back and forth with the undercover agent.
Weeks earlier, while describing the kind of pictures he was looking for, Hart had told the undercover agent, "The nastier, the better."
"When I saw that transcript," Hart said, "that's when I realized what kind of monster I'd become."
Hart's arrest made local headlines. "For five days after the arrest, I just sat in my room, staring at the wall, drinking coffee," he said. "I didn't sleep. I didn't eat. I didn't talk to anyone. I didn't even listen to music during that time.
"For the next five months, the family and friends who stood by me had to tell me when to eat, when to wake up, when to go to bed, when to take a walk. I couldn't function."
The support of his family and counseling sessions with Heffler have helped Hart - not only to move on with his life, but to recognize the pain his actions caused others.
Not everyone was forgiving and supportive. A few friends dumped him altogether. One told him bluntly, "I can't be your friend anymore."
Not a victimless crime
In the months since his arrest, Hart said, he has come to realize that the children in the images he was viewing were victims of vicious and degrading crimes.
"Morally, I consider myself a sex offender," he said. "Yes, there were other people molesting these kids, but I was taking gratification from it. I was helping to create the market for it. I feel like I have blood on my hands."
None of the thrills he got from child porn were worth what he lost, Hart said. His hope is that men who are looking at child pornography now will learn from his mistakes and get help. Here is what he would tell others looking at child pornography now:
"There's no such thing as a victimless crime, when it comes to children. Before I got arrested, I was becoming aware that I had a problem. I tried to stop a couple of times. I couldn't. If you're trying to fight it yourself, get some psychiatric counseling."
What will Hart do after his prison term?
"I'm not even thinking right now in terms of an occupation," he said. "I'm going to do everything I can to make this up to the people I hurt."
e-mail: dherbeck@buffnews,com
FOCUS: PORNOGRAPHY
'I had become a monster'
Former teacher in prison for child pornography discusses his obsession and the nightmare it caused
Second of two parts
By DAN HERBECK
News Staff Reporter
10/18/2005
Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News
"I was addicted to it like people get addicted to cocaine or alcohol . . ." said Jeffrey Hart about child pornography. Hart is a former Town of Tonawanda teacher serving time in a federal prison for possessing child pornography.
Looking back, Jeffrey E. Hart says he is thankful the FBI caught him.
"The day they arrested me, I realized what I had become," he said, "a monster."
Hart, 28, a former teacher who is now a federal prisoner, blames only himself for his fall into the dark and sleazy world of Internet child pornography.
His obsession with child porn resulted in his arrest, the loss of his job and the 57-month term he is serving in a federal prison for sex offenders in South Carolina.
Hart wishes he could go back to the spring of 2001, when he got bored looking at adult pornography and began to seek out images of naked young girls.
He wishes he had looked for psychiatric help before his curiosity became an obsession that turned his life upside down.
"The first few times I saw child porn, I was totally disgusted," Hart told The Buffalo News. "I couldn't click off of it fast enough. But after a while, it became an escape for me. I was addicted to it like people get addicted to cocaine or alcohol . . . I thank God they stopped me when they did."
Hart was arrested in June 2004, when members of an FBI cyber crimes task force showed up at his mother's home in the Town of Tonawanda. He immediately confessed to possessing child pornography and later pleaded guilty to a single felony charge.
Hart was never accused of molesting children, and he insists he never felt the urge to do so. But his conviction made him a registered state sex offender and forced him to resign his job as an elementary and middle school art teacher in the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda school system. As a convicted felon, he can never teach again.
Losing a job was nothing compared with the pain he caused his mother, father, brother and other family members, Hart said.
"I don't feel bad for myself, but for them," he said. "Knowing how this devastated my family is a pain that is with me all the time, even when I'm asleep."
Hart said he agreed to tell his story publicly because he hopes other men will read it, learn from his mistakes and get psychiatric help.
The introspective ex-teacher is one of a growing number of men throughout the nation prosecuted for viewing and trading child porn images on the Internet. The number of federal prosecutions for such crimes has skyrocketed - from just 366 in fiscal year 1995 to more than 1,550 so far this year.
At least 200,000 child porn Web sites exist, according to Innocence in Danger, a non-profit international group that fights child exploitation. The group estimates that, worldwide, one million children each year are forced into the "commercial sex industry."
Violators caught in Western New York have included several other teachers, a priest, at least two politicians, a police officer, a youth hockey coach and a retired judge. Most cases involve men like Hart, who download images and trade them with others.
The worst local incidents involve men who transmitted images of themselves molesting toddlers or young children - in some cases, their own children or grandchildren.
Why are so many American men willing to risk their freedom, their reputations and family relationships to look at sex images of children?
The men who get involved generally fall into two groups, according to Dr. David G. Heffler, an Orchard Park psychologist who counsels sex offenders.
One group is made up of hard-core pedophiles who look at child porn to indulge their fantasies and who sometimes use the Internet to contact children and teens whom they hope to molest.
The larger group - which includes Hart - consists of men who start out as Internet porn thrill-seekers and wind up in big trouble.
"If the public knew how many men in this community are looking at Internet pornography, day after day, people would be shocked," Heffler said. "A lot of these men start looking at adult porn. The Internet makes it so easy, it becomes a habitual thing. Some actually become addicted to the chemical response that their arousal from pornography releases into the brain."
After a while, for some men, adult porn becomes too routine, Heffler said. They start looking at images of teenage girls. Then, some move toward images of children.
"Part of the nature of man is that he's attracted to things that are considered taboo by society," Heffler said. "I've interviewed men who said they never intended to look at children, but once they did, they were drawn to it, again and again."
Heffler considers all pornography to be bad for society.
"Once a man starts looking at pornography and looking at women as sex objects, less than human, he's on a slippery slope," he said. "He could start looking at kids that way."
Never underestimate the damage that child porn causes for the children who are forced to take part in it, said Elizabeth R. Donatello. She is a prosecutor with the Niagara County district attorney's office who specializes in sex offender cases.
"If you're looking at this material, children are being raped and molested for your entertainment," she said. ""For the victims, it's always on their mind that their pictures are being circulated all over the world."
Forbidden territory
An honor student in the Sweet Home school system, Hart began looking at Playboy magazines at age 12 and adult porn videos as a teenager. In his early 20s, Hart realized that the Internet opened up a whole new world of porn. All he had to do was sit in his room and turn on his computer. "It was easier to get porn than a pack of cigarettes," he said.
Hart kept pushing the envelope, looking for the edgiest adult entertainment he could find. He found Web sites offering pictures of nude teenage girls and started looking at them.
And then, children.
At first, the images repulsed him. Later, he couldn't get enough.
Over the next three years, Hart gradually focused more and more on images of children. Some were posing nude. Others were being molested by adults.
Visibly embarrassed, Hart struggled for words as he tried to explain his attraction to such material.
"At the time, I had some personal demons that I had no way to deal with . . . I was spending a lot of time on the Internet," he said.
"There's a rush you get from doing something that is forbidden. That's part of the attraction. I was being extremely selfish. Pornography is all about a quick fix. Looking at those images makes you feel like you are in control of others . . . My mistake was, I didn't see children there. All I saw was pictures."
Getting caught
By May 2004, Hart had a steady girlfriend and a good job. According to school officials, he was doing excellent work, and there were never complaints about his conduct. But at home, he was looking at child porn almost every day. He stored images in his hard drive and used the Internet to trade them with other men he met through child porn Web sites.
One of those men turned out to be an undercover FBI agent. Hart e-mailed the man seven images of a nude preteen girl.
At 7 a.m. on June 29, 2004, eight federal agents came to Hart's mother's home with a warrant, authorizing them to seize Hart's computer. "My mother woke me up. Two agents came into my room to talk to me," Hart recalled. "They showed me a transcript of me e-mailing back and forth with the undercover agent.
Weeks earlier, while describing the kind of pictures he was looking for, Hart had told the undercover agent, "The nastier, the better."
"When I saw that transcript," Hart said, "that's when I realized what kind of monster I'd become."
Hart's arrest made local headlines. "For five days after the arrest, I just sat in my room, staring at the wall, drinking coffee," he said. "I didn't sleep. I didn't eat. I didn't talk to anyone. I didn't even listen to music during that time.
"For the next five months, the family and friends who stood by me had to tell me when to eat, when to wake up, when to go to bed, when to take a walk. I couldn't function."
The support of his family and counseling sessions with Heffler have helped Hart - not only to move on with his life, but to recognize the pain his actions caused others.
Not everyone was forgiving and supportive. A few friends dumped him altogether. One told him bluntly, "I can't be your friend anymore."
Not a victimless crime
In the months since his arrest, Hart said, he has come to realize that the children in the images he was viewing were victims of vicious and degrading crimes.
"Morally, I consider myself a sex offender," he said. "Yes, there were other people molesting these kids, but I was taking gratification from it. I was helping to create the market for it. I feel like I have blood on my hands."
None of the thrills he got from child porn were worth what he lost, Hart said. His hope is that men who are looking at child pornography now will learn from his mistakes and get help. Here is what he would tell others looking at child pornography now:
"There's no such thing as a victimless crime, when it comes to children. Before I got arrested, I was becoming aware that I had a problem. I tried to stop a couple of times. I couldn't. If you're trying to fight it yourself, get some psychiatric counseling."
What will Hart do after his prison term?
"I'm not even thinking right now in terms of an occupation," he said. "I'm going to do everything I can to make this up to the people I hurt."
e-mail: dherbeck@buffnews,com
10/17/2005 19:42 #28203
BillsCategory: nfl
I have to admit that I'm verry surprised that The Patriots lost and with the Buffalo Win we are tied for first place. I thought that if Losman played to his ablity we would have a good year but that we wouldn't make the playoffs. I admit it is still early in the season but so far the NFL is looking like the entrie season is going to be verry interesting in dead. My raiders are biting bad interms of there record but what ya gona do. Monday Night Bikini football at Guido's on Chipewa sound awesome. It also sounds like a great way to get brought up on sexual haresement or assult charges to. I have also heard a couple adds for some strip club where they show football. I think watching Football with the Jills and Bikini Bar tenders would be so distracting wich one do you watch. But stripers that would be almost impossibe I wonder if they Have TV where they give private dances. I know there are some clubs in the falls where you can get BJ and Finger the girls from what I have been told I wonder if that is the same place or same girls I doubt it. In any event I think Hot girls and Football are a good mix but forget about work the next day. Go Bills!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10/16/2005 14:57 #28202
Sabres economic inpact articleCategory: economics
[size=m]Last night I watched the sabres game. It was a lot of fun. I fell asleep for a few minutes when the game was tied. But then I saw them lose with a late goal. I was hoping for OT then maybe they had a chance, I wanted to See a shot out that would have been cool. I think there next game is thursday. I read an interesting article in today's buffalo News about there economic impact that I found interesting, I wish it went into A little more depth but it is still a good article.[/size]
Return of Sabres puts money into many local pockets
Concessions workers, downtown restaurants, governments all benefit
By DAVID ROBINSON
News Business Reporter
10/16/2005
Click to view larger picture
Mark Mullville/Buffalo News
It's not just fans of the Buffalo Sabres who are happy to see the National Hockey League team playing again.
Click to view larger picture
Ronald J. Colleran/Buffalo News
Mary Beth Billittier of Chef's Restaurant says her business can get a 20 percent boost on nights the Sabres play. Here she greets customers Ronald P. Keellner, left, and Lawrence J. Speiser.
Mary Beth Billittier is thrilled to see the Buffalo Sabres playing again - and not just because she's a hockey fan.
Billittier also is happy because the return of the National Hockey League is bringing back the swarm of fans who eat at Chef's restaurant before games, which can bump up her business by as much as 20 percent.
"It's definitely increased our business on those days. We do get that hockey rush," she said. "Plus, the Sabres come in for lunch before every home game and people come in to see them. We get a double hit from them."
Billittier's not alone. While the return of the Sabres after missing the 2004-05 season due to a lockout isn't causing an economic boom felt throughout the region, it is having a noticeable impact on the area around HSBC Arena.
"We'll see a spike in certain types of business," said Richard Geiger, the president of the Buffalo Niagara Convention and Visitors Bureau.
For starters, the return of hockey is putting about $2 million in extra income into the pockets of the 700 to 900 concessions workers, ushers and other game-night employees, said Sabres spokesman Michael Gilbert.
Those earnings, which average about $50 per game, often are used as a secondary source of income to pay for everything from private school tuition to family vacations. But for workers whose primary job pays in the $20,000 range, that extra $2,000 in earnings during the season can be an important part of their overall income.
The return of the Sabres also means extra business for the downtown restaurants and bars that cater to the fans heading to the arena. Cobblestone, a restaurant located in the shadow of the HSBC Arena at South Park Avenue and Mississippi Street, opens only on nights when there is an event at the arena or for Thursday in the Square concerts.
Cobblestone was open for only about 40 dates last season, but with the return of the Sabres and more than 40 home games, Cobblestone now expects to be serving customers twice as often this season.
"There are 40 more nights of something going on at the arena," Gilbert said.
The return of the Sabres also means extra demand for hotel rooms for the visiting teams, as well as fans from out-of-town attending a game. "We'll see it in hotel occupancy," Geiger said. "When the visiting teams come in, they'll take 20 to 25 rooms. And the even bigger impact will be on the restaurants."
Even the Sabres staff, which had been cut by more than a third during the lockout, has returned to its old level of about 125 people, Gilbert said.
The return of the NHL also is a boon for state and local governments, which will reap significantly larger tax payments from the extra income generated by the salaries earned by the Sabres players and arena workers, along with sales taxes on parking and items associated with the team.
In all, local governments will pick up an extra $1 million in sales taxes, while the state government will see more than $3 million in sales and income taxes that disappeared because of the lockout, according to Sabres figures.
"It's a positive," said George Palumbo, a Canisius College economics professor who closely follows the Buffalo Niagara economy.
The impact of the Sabres also depends on where its fans come from. Fans from outside the region pack the biggest economic punch because they bring new money to the area that flows to hotels, restaurants, the team and whatever other attractions they take in while they're here, he said.
But because local residents tend to have a limited amount of money for recreational activities, from concerts and movies to Buffalo Bills and Sabres games, a spike in interest at one type of event often takes money away from others.
"Unless you're bringing people into the region or getting people to spend money they otherwise wouldn't have spent, it's just taking the money from one set of recreational activity and moving it into another," Palumbo said.
With the Sabres idle, Shea's Performing Arts Center had a strong season last year, with shows like the Rockettes and the Lion King, boosting attendance to around 450,000. Crowds at the University at Buffalo men's basketball team's games last season were 38 percent bigger as the Bulls made a run at an NCAA tournament bid.
"You have a certain amount of discretionary dollars in the marketplace," Geiger said. "Hopefully, we'll see more people coming in from Rochester and on a regional basis. And I think we'll see people continue to come from southern Ontario, mainly because they can't get tickets in Toronto."
The return of the professional hockey also was a welcome boost for Delaware North Cos. Sportservice, the Buffalo-based business that handles concessions for seven NHL arenas, including HSBC Arena and arenas in Boston, Nashville, Columbus, Tampa, Dallas and Edmonton.
e-mail: drobinson@buffnews.com
two pictures from the article one is of Chefs and the other is the HSBC arena
[bgcolor]#0000ff[/bgcolor]
Return of Sabres puts money into many local pockets
Concessions workers, downtown restaurants, governments all benefit
By DAVID ROBINSON
News Business Reporter
10/16/2005
Click to view larger picture
Mark Mullville/Buffalo News
It's not just fans of the Buffalo Sabres who are happy to see the National Hockey League team playing again.
Click to view larger picture
Ronald J. Colleran/Buffalo News
Mary Beth Billittier of Chef's Restaurant says her business can get a 20 percent boost on nights the Sabres play. Here she greets customers Ronald P. Keellner, left, and Lawrence J. Speiser.
Mary Beth Billittier is thrilled to see the Buffalo Sabres playing again - and not just because she's a hockey fan.
Billittier also is happy because the return of the National Hockey League is bringing back the swarm of fans who eat at Chef's restaurant before games, which can bump up her business by as much as 20 percent.
"It's definitely increased our business on those days. We do get that hockey rush," she said. "Plus, the Sabres come in for lunch before every home game and people come in to see them. We get a double hit from them."
Billittier's not alone. While the return of the Sabres after missing the 2004-05 season due to a lockout isn't causing an economic boom felt throughout the region, it is having a noticeable impact on the area around HSBC Arena.
"We'll see a spike in certain types of business," said Richard Geiger, the president of the Buffalo Niagara Convention and Visitors Bureau.
For starters, the return of hockey is putting about $2 million in extra income into the pockets of the 700 to 900 concessions workers, ushers and other game-night employees, said Sabres spokesman Michael Gilbert.
Those earnings, which average about $50 per game, often are used as a secondary source of income to pay for everything from private school tuition to family vacations. But for workers whose primary job pays in the $20,000 range, that extra $2,000 in earnings during the season can be an important part of their overall income.
The return of the Sabres also means extra business for the downtown restaurants and bars that cater to the fans heading to the arena. Cobblestone, a restaurant located in the shadow of the HSBC Arena at South Park Avenue and Mississippi Street, opens only on nights when there is an event at the arena or for Thursday in the Square concerts.
Cobblestone was open for only about 40 dates last season, but with the return of the Sabres and more than 40 home games, Cobblestone now expects to be serving customers twice as often this season.
"There are 40 more nights of something going on at the arena," Gilbert said.
The return of the Sabres also means extra demand for hotel rooms for the visiting teams, as well as fans from out-of-town attending a game. "We'll see it in hotel occupancy," Geiger said. "When the visiting teams come in, they'll take 20 to 25 rooms. And the even bigger impact will be on the restaurants."
Even the Sabres staff, which had been cut by more than a third during the lockout, has returned to its old level of about 125 people, Gilbert said.
The return of the NHL also is a boon for state and local governments, which will reap significantly larger tax payments from the extra income generated by the salaries earned by the Sabres players and arena workers, along with sales taxes on parking and items associated with the team.
In all, local governments will pick up an extra $1 million in sales taxes, while the state government will see more than $3 million in sales and income taxes that disappeared because of the lockout, according to Sabres figures.
"It's a positive," said George Palumbo, a Canisius College economics professor who closely follows the Buffalo Niagara economy.
The impact of the Sabres also depends on where its fans come from. Fans from outside the region pack the biggest economic punch because they bring new money to the area that flows to hotels, restaurants, the team and whatever other attractions they take in while they're here, he said.
But because local residents tend to have a limited amount of money for recreational activities, from concerts and movies to Buffalo Bills and Sabres games, a spike in interest at one type of event often takes money away from others.
"Unless you're bringing people into the region or getting people to spend money they otherwise wouldn't have spent, it's just taking the money from one set of recreational activity and moving it into another," Palumbo said.
With the Sabres idle, Shea's Performing Arts Center had a strong season last year, with shows like the Rockettes and the Lion King, boosting attendance to around 450,000. Crowds at the University at Buffalo men's basketball team's games last season were 38 percent bigger as the Bulls made a run at an NCAA tournament bid.
"You have a certain amount of discretionary dollars in the marketplace," Geiger said. "Hopefully, we'll see more people coming in from Rochester and on a regional basis. And I think we'll see people continue to come from southern Ontario, mainly because they can't get tickets in Toronto."
The return of the professional hockey also was a welcome boost for Delaware North Cos. Sportservice, the Buffalo-based business that handles concessions for seven NHL arenas, including HSBC Arena and arenas in Boston, Nashville, Columbus, Tampa, Dallas and Edmonton.
e-mail: drobinson@buffnews.com
two pictures from the article one is of Chefs and the other is the HSBC arena
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Like the new userpic, by the way!